Sometime back in September (or thereabouts) all four of us were in the trusty mini van, driving along a route we take often. (Yes, it is the way from our house to Target and Starbucks, what of it?) Anyway, we turn a corner and to the right are recently harvested cornfields, split by a line of large trees, just changing colors and starting to lose their leaves. At this point on this particular trip, CJ starts proclaiming loudly that the trees are walking. He is pointing out the window and exclaiming, “Look, walking trees!” He is not proclaiming this is a happy way. These are not friendly Ents to CJ’s estimation. They have a dark purpose. John and I look over, trying to figure out what he is seeing, assuming it is just an optical illusion since we are in motion.

Then CJ insists they are gone, having disappeared into the distant copse of trees.

To this day we are clueless as to what he actually saw, but he still insists that the walking trees with a dark purpose exist and are lurking whenever we drive to Target. Or Starbucks. Which maybe a lot. Ahem.

So walking trees, people. And not the friendly Treebeard. Nope, the angry Orthanc destroying Ents.

Bear with me for a moment. I am about to go all geek over this blog. It does have a point if you will stick with me to the end.

I love Star Wars. I am one of those. I will watch it. I will talk about it. And I will write about it. In the original three movies, there are three main characters, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia Organa. She is the one I am choosing to focus on in this post. Here are just some of the AWESOME things about Princess Leia.

* At 20 she is a senator. Her people trusted her enough to send her as their representative to an intergalactic body of government.

* She is such a high standing rebel that they trust her with the Death Star plans.

* She is able to hide those plans in a droid and then over-ride his basic program to get him to deliver them to Obi-Wan Kenobi in a matter of minutes after Darth Vader boards her ship.

* She takes out a Stormtrooper.

* She doesn’t pee herself when Darth gets in her face or when his nasty looking torture droid does either.

* She trash talks Grand Moff Tarkin.

* She totally pretends to sell out the rebels and then doesn’t.

* I’m pretty sure that after Luke, Han, and Chewbacca got her cell open, she could have saved herself.

* Ain’t no time for crying over the lose of a planet when evil must be overthrown!

* She was one of the last out when the Hoth base was being evacuated. She had to be hauled out.

* She so did not fall for Lando’s charm.

* She shoots her way out of Bespin only to turn around to save her friend.

* Two words. Thermal Detonator.

* Despite being dressed as a sex slave, she manages to take out a three ton slug using a chain to choke him.

* Despite being shot, she takes out a stormtrooper.

While she does ALL OF THE THINGS, she is almost always dressed in very serviceable clothing. The clothes are made for the actions she will most likely be doing. Even her nice dress at the awards ceremony in Episode IV seems comfortable and easy to move in. There is only one outfit she wears in the whole series that is not. It is the one that she is forced into by a perverted, power-hungry mafia boss slug. It’s the slave outfit (and even this one includes sensible shoes).

Out of the at least ten different outfits she wears in the movies, guess which one the only Leia action figure in the Star Wars aisle at Target is wearing?**

This says to me that the toy makers and stores are not only not interested in girls who are fans, they are not interest in children of either gender who are either. They are marketing the toys to those they think will buy them and to them it is the middle-aged, expendable income having, misogynistic, sexually repressed fan boy. This is such a small percentage of the Star Wars fan base. SO SMALL. THE SMALLEST (in more than one way). They are buying a stereotype. Apparently, they either don’t want to pay for market analysis, or theirs is horribly skewed. And it is sending a message to both boys and girls about the importance of women not just in a movie series but society as a whole. These kinds of representations permeate life outside of fiction and fantasy. To ignore the role Leia played in the movies is not unlike ignoring the role women have played in history all together.

Toys are meant to help children explore the world through imagination and play. To exclude a female character in her more powerful and useful roles sends a poor message to all children.

**Note: It is the only Leia. None of the empty pegs were for Leias, and there are no other Leia figures on the web site. Even at Amazon, the only Leias seem to be vintage ones. CJ loves the Playskool Heroes toys, action figures made for younger kids, they don’t even make a Leia anymore nor do any of the other female Star Wars seem to be widely available.

Pet ownership is often a cycle. We look to keep the role of animal companion filled. At the death of a pet, some go out almost immediately to find a new friend, others wait a while, sometimes a long while. But almost always, at some point, another snout is sniffing your crotch.

It is never a replacement for the wet nose that went before. Rather, I imagine it this way. We carry a little pet cemetery somewhere in the vicinity of our spiritual heart. When the new pet tongue starts to lick your hand or puts a head in your lap, flowers start to bloom on the last grave in the line. Each grave has its own individual look and scent, as many varieties of flowers and greens adorn the plots as there were personalities in those they pay tribute to.

Those blooms of love keep a scar from forming. They insure that the grave becomes one of memorializing, not grieving. It is yet another gift from those critters more wiser than humans can ever hope to be.